BABIES and toddlers are being admitted to hospital because they are dangerously overweight, figures reveal.

Over the past year 846 children under 15, including 56 under the age of four, have needed urgent medical attention as a direct result of obesity.

The government figures also show an explosive 15-fold rise in the number of girls aged 17 to 19 being admitted to hospital with medical concerns about obesity as a “secondary diagnosis” over the past decade.

The number of obese boys also admitted to hospital with concerns over their obesity or obesity related problems rose by more than seven times in the same period.

Separate figures show one in three children is now overweight, with one in five obese, putting them at risk of a wide range of health problems such as heart disease, Type 2 diabetes, some cancers and infertility.

These figures are alarming particularly the explosive increase in teenage girls being hospitalised with obesity

Professor Philip James, of Obesity Task Force

Experts have described the trend as generation XXL.

Experts warn obese mothers are more likely to have obese babies and children who later become obese adults, which they say is creating a “vicious spiralling circle”.

The figures show the number of babies and children under four hospitalised with obesity as a secondary diagnosis has risen by three-fold over the last decade to 262.

Among primary school children aged 5 to 11 they nearly doubled to 943, the number of 12 to 16-year-olds rose by three-fold to 1,745 while the number of those aged 17 to 19 increased to 4,000, with more than 3,000 of these girls.